Towards a New-Institutional Analysis of Sport Rules: The Case of Volleyball

Since its emergence, sport economics has been influenced by contributions from microeconomics and its various research fronts. As a result, sport has been studied primarily as a market product. Despite the rapid progression of the discipline, the contribution of new institutional economics appears to be still limited. While studies on the managerial aspects of professional sport exist, particularly those using transaction cost theory, the economic literature on the evolution of the rules of the game over time seems underdeveloped. In this paper, we seek to address this gap by proposing a Northian approach to sport and by applying this theoretical framework to volleyball and its regulatory evolution. Regulatory evolution is analysed here as the result of both path-dependent dynamics and strategic behaviour by organisations. The specific focus on volleyball reflects both a personal interest and a complete lack of analyses of this nature regarding this sport.